One Way To Say It
by serkeret
Summary: In which Steve and Bucky discover the joys of Post-It Notes. Natasha helps.


Natasha should get a medal for putting up with everyone's shit.  
She couldn't count the amount of times not to mention the times Tony and Thor decided to fuck around and have prank wars against each other and the rest of SHIELD, or when Clint found out how to make a tampon gun. It was honestly fucking exhausting.

[Розы красные  
фиалки синие  
блин  
я хочу поцеловать тебя]

So when she found a post-it note stuck to the milk in the fridge that said, in really bad Russian, "Roses are red/Violets are Blue/Pancake/Let me kiss you," (which was confusing, but got the point across, she supposed,) it was surprising to find out that Steve had actually written it.

"Sorry," he said, embarrassed, "That wasn't supposed to be for you."  
"Well who else knows Russian he-"

And that was how Natasha found out about Steve's crush on Bucky.

Day Two and Three of Operation Sticky Note didn't pan out as well as Steve thought it would either. The fourth didn't look promising either until he found a note stuck on his bathroom mirror.

["The only thing more incredible than your smile is when you smile at me"]

That was Bucky's handwriting. That was unmistakably Bucky's handwriting. Steve suddenly regretted even coming up Operation Sticky Note if it was actually going to work.

"What, no you have to keep going."  
"With what? I can't say anything to that, I wrote pancake on the last one."  
"Yeah," Natasha said, "What were you trying to say anyways?"  
"Damn."

[Don't threaten me with love baby  
Let's just go walking in the rain.]

Bucky finds the next Post-it note in his underwear drawer, which was incredibly impressive of Mr. Captain America. He thought that Steve would have been too loud to place the note there while he was sleeping, but he was apparently wrong. Actually, that gave Bucky an idea.

[Seduce me.]

Steve didn't wake up to the sticky note being placed on his face. He should have woken up, but he didn't and that was worrying. However, the note seemed to be demanding a more direct approach, which Steve could definitely do.

Bucky's day starts off like it used to before the Post-it notes started appearing. Shower - applying metal cleaner to his arm - clothes - go down to eat breakfast. He almost misses the post it note:

[11 Madison Park  
8pm]

Bucky hasn't seen Steve since the Post-it notes started, so really it's not that concerning that he's nervous. I mean he shouldn't be concerned that he's changed suddenly in the week he's been AWOL.

And then he remembers how quickly he changed when he was brainwashed and how quickly Steve changed when he got the serum and Bucky's back to panicking.

He has four hours to pull his hair back into a ponytail, decide that looks dumb and let it flow down, and have it end up exactly the way it was before anyways. He puts on the best clothes he owns and- oh shit its 7:52 and he should have left 20 mins ago.

By the time he gets to the restaurant, Steve has ordered them drinks and Bucky would apologize for being late but god damn does Steve look good right now and it comes out more or less "I'm sorry you're hot," which, yeah that's totally what Bucky was going for.

"Thanks," Steve says, "Tasha helped me with the suit, so I guess I should be thanking her, but thanks. For the compliment," and then takes a sip of his beer. Bucky follows suit and his drink is light and sweet, tasting more like a soda that was laced with vodka than anything like the almost sour beers he used to drink.

"That's really good," Bucky says and Steve tells him some French word he wouldn't ever be able to pronounce even if he tried. Bucky just nods and drinks more, allowing his belly to warm up.

There's an awkward moment of silence between the two of them when Steve says, "So about a week ago I was in Tokyo and there was this shop filled with tonnes of those little sticky paper things. I thought they were really cute so I got a ton of them."

"And you decided to stick them on my underwear."  
"Not at first!"  
"But you did," Bucky says and Steve looks down, which was fucking adorable to say the least, "Did you mean anything by that?"

Steve doesn't say anything. The waitress is remarkably well timed.

They eat for a while and then they start talking about things not related to the underwear thing at all until Steve says, "I did."

"You what?"  
"I meant something by that."  
"Oh," and Bucky's not sure what to think about that.  
"I would have too," Bucky says after pausing.  
"You would have what?"  
"Meant something by that."

Steve nods and then continues on with a story of some prank war Thor and Tony were in last week and, it's funny, but Bucky really wishes Steve would stop trying to ignore the issue.

"You should come back to my place. After we're done eating."  
"Don't you live in the towers?" Steve says because he's still a nerd, even after 80 years in ice.  
"My apartment," Bucky clarifies, "It's a couple block from here. And less crowded."  
"Oh. Oh." Steve says and Bucky smirks, nodding, "We can also go right now. I, uh, payed the bill up front so"  
"Yeah we should go." Bucky says and practically drags Steve out of the restaurant.


End file.
